


In Santa's Footsteps

by T Verano (t_verano)



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: 2013 TS Secret Santa Drabble Day prompt "chimney", Gen, Jim's christmases as a boy, jim's childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2020-04-11 23:18:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19119742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: Jim knows there isn't any Santa Claus. But that's okay; he gets to help Sally keep Stevie believing in Saint Nick.





	In Santa's Footsteps

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 2013 TS Secret Santa Drabble Day prompt "chimney"

Jim couldn't remember now if he'd ever _really_ believed in stupid Santa Claus. He did remember the first time he heard his parents' quiet voices in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, when he was just a little kid, when his mom was still around. He remembered lying upstairs in bed with the covers pulled up to his chin, listening to his parents talking together downstairs about wrapping this present or that one, about how excited Jimmy was going to be in the morning when he saw his new bike, how they needed to remember to eat the cookies they'd had Jimmy leave out for Santa… In the morning every single present had been from "Santa," and he'd pretended like he didn't _know_ Mom and Dad were "Santa."

He'd wanted to say something then, but he hadn't. You weren't supposed to eavesdrop, it was rude. And his parents acted like it was important that they'd fooled him, that he believe in their "Santa." So he pretended. He liked seeing them happy, so it was okay.

Now there was just him and Dad and Sally and Stevie. And Stevie really did believe, Jim could tell. Stevie was still just a little kid, though, and he hadn't ever heard Mom and Dad pretending to be Santa Claus in the middle of the night.

Sally wrapped the presents now, except for the ones that looked like they were wrapped by robots, all fancy paper and perfectly creased corners and special bows. She put "from Santa" tags on some of them and locked them away in a closet, and after Stevie went to sleep on Christmas Eve Jim would come downstairs and help her carry them out to put underneath the Christmas tree in the living room.

She always had stockings ready for everybody, too, and Jim got to hang them up on the mantel, with her watching him like a hawk so he wouldn't try too hard to guess what she'd put in his stocking. And then she would smile and whisper, "Time to finish it up," and Jim would grin at her and go gather his supplies.

This was his favorite part. He liked making a drift of sugar "snow" on the hearth and carefully putting a boot-print right in the middle of it (Stevie never caught on that the boot was one of Dad's rain-boots from the hall closet). And he loved getting to eat most of a plate of Sally's Christmas cookies, even if he had to leave a few crumbled cookie pieces on the plate so Stevie could see that "Santa" had had his snack.

And in the morning, Stevie would rush downstairs, all big-eyed and excited. "He came!" he'd say. "Santa came! Look, Jimmy, Santa came down the chimney!"

And Jim would just say, "Yeah, he did," and grin a little at Sally when Stevie wasn't looking, before he started to open his stocking and see what Sally had come up with for him this year.


End file.
